Americans are not good with this kind of thing. Nobody likes bacteria and biting insects and microscopic mites that burrow into the upper layer of the skin. (Again. Ewww.) But Americans -- identifiable worldwide by our travel-size bottles of hand sanitizer -- might be a bit more neurotic about it than others.

Britain's Guardian newspaper recently published a piece suggesting that bedbugs are really not all that bad. Sorry, but my upper lip doesn't get that stiff. I'm an American, and bedbugs are going to make me freak out.